Saturday, June 15, 2013

2013 Eagleman 70.3

The 2013 Eagleman 70.3 was another memorable event. On a challenging course during a time of the year when I'm trying to gear up my race legs for another summer, I achieved my second best time in my four trips to Cambridge. The weekend was extra memorable because my dad and I got to spend an early Father's Day weekend together as he was my only supporter to make the trip. The rest of the family and many friends tracked online from Pittsburgh. Thanks for all the support!

At lunch on Saturday with Dad and the Shutt's

Race morning started with a blow-out in transition. Yep, I blew my rear inner-tube putting air in my back tire so I had to spend a little extra time getting that changed. That's why you get to transition early! I had plenty of time to repair the tire and properly prepare for the start of my race.

Blew a tire race morning.

Ready!

Set!

Go!

Unfortunately, my swim was slower than I had hoped. I was looking for a time similar to last year's 32 minutes, but came in several minutes slower. However, I felt I had a good swim conserving energy while keeping a consistent stroke with good sight lines.

Slow and steady...

As you know, if you read my blog, my bike is always the strongest part of my race. Today was no different. I practically matched last year's bike PR, once again breaking 2:20 over the 56 miles. Coming into transition with a pack of racers, I felt I was in a decent position within my age group, but was uncertain of my specific place. It ends up, I had moved up from 49th place to 25th place within my age group (35-39) and from 423rd to 137th overall, while averaging just slightly over 24 mph. I'll take it!

Dad enjoying my 56 mile bike ride.

Going into the day, I had hoped to maintain a pace around 7:00/mile on the run. Unfortunately, it quickly became evident to me that was not going to happen today. I hit the mile 1 marker in 7:12, but knew it was going to be a long day on the run. My upper body was very tired and even sore from holding the aero position on the bike over 56 miles. This was most likely due to a lack of training and conditioning on the bike. This is one reason Eagleman is always so challenging for me. As many triathletes know, it's hard to juggle training with work and family, and Eagleman is an early season race for me as my real training can only begin after the high school track season ends. So I suffered through the 13.1 mile half-marathon with a crawling pace of 8:15/mile, but I was very proud of my effort and determination to finish on one of my rougher days.

That run was miserable!

Overall, I came in with a time of 4:48:27. That was good enough for 38th in my age group and 127th overall. Not the result I was hoping for, but a good day nonetheless. It's time to set my sites on bigger things. First, the anticipation of the birth of our second son coming in July! Then, on to New York where I'll face the biggest challenge of my tri experience, Ironman Lake Placid.